OZschwitz government pimping new dental care hoax

Dentists have slammed the Turnbull government's new dental scheme, describing it as a "smoke and mirrors" plan that will cut $200 million a year from the system and put further pressure on public waiting lists.

Health Minister Sussan Ley announced on Saturday that every Australian child - and millions of low-income adults - would be eligible for subsidised dental care under a new $2.1 billion Child and Adult Public Dental Scheme, or caPDS. It would replace Labor's "underperforming" means-tested Child Dental Benefits Scheme and the adult dental National Partnership Agreement.

Ms Ley said the new scheme would provide more than 10 million Australians - all 5.3 million children aged under 18 and about 5 million adults with Commonwealth concession cards - access to public dental through a single five-year agreement with the states. The deal would be enshrined in legislation to provide long-term certainty.

The scheme would be part of a $5 billion investment in frontline dental services, which Ms Ley said represented a doubling of Commonwealth funding. It would lay the foundations for a "fair and equitable" scheme, she said.

"We are significantly increasing Commonwealth investment in frontline public dental services and we expect the result to be an extra 600,000 public dental patients treated every year as a direct result," Ms Ley said.